Hancock (12A)

Troubled superheroes are as much a staple of cinema as femmes fatales and maverick cops.

In Hancock, Will Smith plays the daddy of all dark and dysfunctional knights – a surly alcoholic who hates the company of others. If anyone can rise to such an occasion, it’s surely Smith, Mr Congeniality himself?

Afraid not. Hancock is a half-baked curiosity, a rare turkey from Smith to go in the pen beside Wild Wild West.

The usual superhero career path is to go from affable nobody to loved but feared demigod. Hancock starts off unlikeable and goes downhill from there. The drinking is a nice touch – superbeing floored by man’s everyday poison, etc – but the effects on Hancock are anything but appealing.

It might have a commendable salute to reality to have the character as a bitter, depressed soak, but it’s not exactly what you’d call showing the audience a good time. Even when Hancock does a noble deed, like save someone’s life, the havoc he creates makes the LA crowd turn on him. And vice versa. “I’ve been drinking, bitch,” he says to one onlooker. We’re a long way from Hitch territory.

The man Hancock rescues turns out to be a PR agent who offers to clean up the superhero’s act. Ray (Jason Bateman) is married to Mary (a miscast Charlize Theron) who, oddly enough, takes an instant dislike to Hancock.

It takes forever for Peter Berg (The Kingdom) to get his tale on track. All the while the tone bucks and shifts from dark to light, action to comedy, dull to occasionally inspired. And still Smith is not allowed to do his crowd-pleasing thing. “I’m not the most charming guy in the world,” his character tells Ray. But charming is what Smith does better than anyone, and if the script had allowed his character to transform himself earlier the movie might have stood more of a chance.

Instead, just when Smith finally gets to play nice, along comes a plot twist that allows Berg to blow up lots of things, including whatever sense remains in the story. This is fourth of July weekend in the States, otherwise known as Will Smith Storms the Box Office Season. Though Hancock will doubtless open well, this is one superhero film that will be flying off to DVD-land faster than a speeding bullet.

Will Smith is currently cinema's biggest hero and its most popular star, and deservedly so.

In this film he plays a superhero with a difference, but none of his superheroic antics can match what Smith does in real life by making this film appealing.

To be honest, Hancock without Smith would be no better than ordinary; his sheer likeability coupled with some spiffy special effects makes it watchable for a tolerably brief running time.

Hancock is a superhero with issues. Not Peter Parker issues, but real issues like being fond of a drink, having no people skills, and serious problems with his temper.

A superhero with a temper is a bad thing – just ask Bruce Banner – but Hancock's life turns around when he saves the family of PR man Jason Bateman. Bateman decides what Hancock needs is spin and tries to turn him into a conventional superhero. Hancock isn't convinced at first but his fondness for Bateman's wife, Charlize Theron, starts to change his mind.

The story is all over the place, the relationship between Smith and Theron seems awkward, and most of the best bits are in the trailer.

However, with three excellent actors and Smith's star power burning on full intensity, Hancock eventually manages to triumph over its faults and shortcomings, just like a superhero should.